Places of Memory. Lieux de memoire. Erinnerungsorte.

Catalog description

What is culture? What is German? Where are the borders between German, Austrian and Swiss culture? What is part of the "cultural canon"? Who decides and what role does memory play? Relying on the theory of collective memory (Halbwachs) and the concept of "places of memory" (Erinnerungsorte; Nora, Francois/Schulze) and with reference to examplary scholarly and literary texts, debates, songs, films, documents, and paintings from high and pop culture, this course will weave a mosaic of that which (also) constitutes German or German-language culture.